PRICE Shoiter, an inmate who sued the Department of Corrections and its officials in federal court for inadequate medical care, has been “removed” from the CNMI by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement or ICE on May 6, 2023, Assistant Attorney General Leslie Healer said.
Healer represents Corrections officials in the lawsuit and is opposing Shoiter’s motion to compel the production of documents.
“Plaintiff was released from the custody of the Department of Corrections to the custody of ICE on May 6, 2023. ICE removed Shoiter from the Commonwealth of the Northern Mariana Islands on the same date. Plaintiff’s release from DOC custody rendered his claims for declaratory and injunctive relief moot, thereby also rendering his motion to compel moot,” Healer said.
Citing previous rulings, Healer added, “An inmate’s release from prison while his claims are pending generally will moot any claims for injunctive relief relating to the prison’s policies unless the suit has been certified as a class action.”
“Because Plaintiff’s claims against the official capacity defendant for injunctive and declaratory relief are now moot, this Court lacks jurisdiction over all matters pertaining to these particular claims,” Healer said.
Healer also noted that the documents which Shoiter seeks to compel in discovery are protected for privacy reasons.
“If DOC were to disclose protected health information of inmates without their consent, this could place DOC in violation of the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act and could subject the agency to suit,” she said.
Shoiter’s request for documents pertaining to the grievances of other inmates regarding medical concerns would be prohibited for privacy reasons because the grievances likely contain confidential health information of the individual inmates, Healer added.
“The documents sought by plaintiff are not relevant to the pending claims and would be unduly burdensome to produce,” Healer said.
“The medical records of other inmates are not relevant to a defendant’s claims of deliberate indifference against a doctor at a correctional facility and a request for such records is not proportional to the needs of the case,” Healer said.
She has filed a motion to dismiss and, if it is successful, it would “dispose of plaintiff’s claims and obviate the need for any remaining discovery requested by plaintiff. That motion will be heard on the same day as the motion to compel and the motion for a protective order.”
Healer asked the court to withhold consideration of Shoiter’s motion pending the court’s ruling on the motion to dismiss.
“Defendant has sufficiently responded to plaintiff’s discovery requests and any additional discovery at this stage is unwarranted. The Court should therefore deny the motion to compel,” she added.
A hearing has been scheduled for June 16 at 9 a.m.
In February 2022, Chief Judge Ramona V. Manglona of the District Court for the NMI issued an order granting Shoiter’s request to set aside a previous dismissal order entered by the court in his case.
Represented by attorney Michael Dotts, Shoiter, a 74-year-old Chuukese national who was sentenced in 2016 to a 10-year prison sentence for sexually abusing a 7-year-old girl, sued the Department of Corrections and its officials in federal court, alleging that he was denied adequate medical care.
In February 2021, a settlement agreement was signed by all parties, but contingent on the then-governor’s approval of Shoiter’s application for conditional clemency.
Under the settlement agreement, Shoiter, among other things, was to receive conditional clemency, heart surgery and knee surgery before a certain deadline, and payment to his counsel of a lump sum amount to cover his damages.
But the then-governor denied Shoiter’s application for conditional clemency.
Dotts said the settlement agreement provided that, in the event that clemency was denied by the governor, the case would be put back on the trial calendar.
